Organized by the Federation of Children's Book Groups, National Non-Fiction November is an annual celebration of the power of non-fiction to inspire people and celebrate readers who have a passion for information and facts.
Here are 5 Non-fiction books to read this November. If you don't read non-fiction this is the right time to start, and I can surely help you with that
"If you don't build your dream someone will hire you to help build theirs."
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The book is a follow-up sequence of the author's previously best-selling book "The courage to be disliked". If you haven't read that one I would highly recommend you check that first before this one.
In the last book, a depressed youth came to visit a philosopher who taught him the importance of "Adler's Philosophy". The youth listen to the teaching and became happy and motivated individuals at the end of the conversion. He went on to become an educator who wished to change the world with his new "Adler Philosophy. Yet after 3 years he couldn't find any significant results and visited the philosopher again with his new queries.
The best part was the youth has now become quite educated about philosophy and asked some great & thoughtful questions. Unlike in the previous book where the conversation was one-sided here there is a proper argument happing between both. In many instances, the youth called the philosopher very rude & used to taunt him, yet the philosopher listen patiently and answers every question the youth had.
The entire book is in dialogue form between the philosopher & youth, divided into 5 parts. The youth started his conversation by expressing his growing frustration with his students. He complained that despite giving his best efforts students do not listen to him. As the conversation digs deeper the philosopher told that the main reason for his unhappiness is not the students or anyone else but himself. The reason is that he does not have the 'Courage to be happy" and from here real discussion begins.
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CONCLUSIONS
I always like follow-up books; this was one of many best self-help books I have read. The whole idea of the book is "you can't be happy unless you're self-reliant' which resonates with me well. It's a helpful book for anyone trying to understand psychology, loneliness & friendship.
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This is one of the easy reads and the best pick to start reading Non-fiction books.
This book has been in my tbr for more than a year since Bill gates first mentioned it. I have almost forgotten about the book, but thanks to Instagram this book somehow popped into my feed and I brought it immediately.
From the advent of mankind, there have been four basic drives of life. First to eat, to drink, to reproduce, and to sleep. We all know the reason behind the first three drives but when it comes to sleep everyone is almost clueless. There is no clear scientific answer to that question, everyone has their theories. This question of "Why do we Sleep" and curiosity related let to it let the author do thousands of research and write this book at last.
The book shows various stages of sleep & dreams. Two main concepts were REM "Rapid eye movement" & NREM means "Non-rapid eye movement". REM is when we dream and NREM is when we are not dreaming and are in a deep sleep. NREM is further divided into 4 parts, 3 & 4 are the most advanced & and deep sleep parts, and waking a person from such a stage requires lots of time. The big revelation is that we keep shifting from REM to NREM every night minutes in night and there is no scientific answer to why it happens.
NREM sleep, which predominates early in the night, is to do the work of weeding out and removing unnecessary neural connections. In contrast, the dreaming stage of REM sleep, which prevails later in the night, plays a role in strengthening those connections.
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Conclusion.
The book has been an amazing read for me, I have never questioned sleeping early since it has never been taught by our education system. The role of sleep is huge to one's success and happiness, and if you wish to master this then check out the book. I am sure you won't get disappointed.
The book is a little technical but it will show you the importance of sleep. You will never try to skip sleeping after reading this book. It is one of the must-read non-fiction books.
"Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid of standing still".
You will regret not reading this non-fiction.
Ray Dalio is the founder and co-chairman of Bridgewater Associates, which, over the last forty years, has become the largest and best-performing hedge fund in the world
"Principles" is written by him at the age of 70. In the books, he shares some of his lifelong lessons and principles which he had obeyed his entire life and which made him a billionaire.
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SUMMARY
The book is divided into 3 parts- Childhood, Life principles & Work principles.
All three parts were very valuable but the childhood part was much more special for me. The reason is that the way he was brought up played a big role in his life, the choices he made defined him today, and finally mistakes made him what he is today.
He was on top of the world in 1982 but then he made some misjudgments about the markets and was quite arrogant to acknowledge it, the result was that from being a top investment manager he become bankrupt unable to even buy an airline ticket. Such a harsh time taught him the value of patience & humility which he goes on to share in his next part
Some principle are as follow
1) Seek out the smartest people who disagreed with me so I could try to
understand their reasoning.
2. Know when not to have an opinion.
3. Develop, test, and systemize timeless and universal principles.
4. Balance risks in ways that keep the big upside while reducing the
downside.
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CONCLUSIONS
The big advantage is that the book is written by Ray himself, unlike third-person writing which is very boring for me. For the first time, you can see through a brain of a billionaire. He doesn't only share his own set of principles, he tells you how to build your own set of principles by embracing your reality and your world. The author has done a good job of capturing almost everything that he seems to have encountered and penned it down in quite an articulate way.
Hawking believed this as one of the best books to read.
The book explores the mysteries of space and black holes; it was written by Stephen W. Hawking, a brilliant scientist, and physicist. Hawking was diagnosed with neuron disease at age 21 in 1963, which gradually paralyzed him over the decade. However, he didn't lose hope and continued his research on astrology. By 1970, he predicted that black holes emit radiation, which became a breakthrough and was later named "Hawking radiation."
The book starts with the very basic question of how this space was created. Many theories were already there for a century, but one famous theory that came in the 20th century was the "big bang" theory. According to this, the entire universe was in one star, which began getting bigger and bigger, and one day it exploded. The entire piece of the star got scattered in space and later became the galaxies and stars that we see today.
Another fact is that the universe, which began with a blast, is getting wider and wider every day; the start you see today is getting farther and farther day by day. This is what keeps everything in place; if space stops getting wider, then all stars and galaxies will collapse on each other due to their gravitational forces.
Finally, the most important part was the origin of black holes. They are created when a star's size is small, but its energy becomes so large over time that not even light can escape its gravitational force.
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Conclusion
It is the best book for those who love space or physics. However, as Hawkings believed that everyone should be aware of space and its related facts and mysteries, only then is it possible to go beyond what we know today and find answers to bigger questions like "Why" all this happened.
Instead of going for an MBA or taking an expensive business course, I would recommend you read this small book.
It is and will be one of the best business books to read.
This book is a memoir by Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos. The company was an American online shoe and clothing retailer that started in 1999. Tony later became the CEO of the company when the company's sales were $1.2 million. By 2009, the company's sales had reached $1 billion, and it was later acquired by Amazon.
Tony shares lots of business insights and lessons in this book, including how he turned Zappos from scratch into a billion-dollar company.
Summary.
Tony started a mail-order business in his childhood, which became a big hit, Although the business didn't last long, it gave little Tony a taste of entrepreneurship and freedom.
Later, he joined Harvard and got a placement at Oracle with a good salary. Everything was going fine, but one thing was missing: the passion that he craved. The same was true of his friend Sanjay, whom he met at Harvard.
So both decided to quit their jobs and start a business named "LinkExchange," which helps with online advertising. The business was a big hit and was later sold to Microsoft for US$265 million.
Although he became a millionaire at the age of 26, the passion was still missing, which led him to take another big bet on Zappos, which was originally founded by Nick Swinmurn. He became an investor in the company and later its CEO.
Zappos was in a very bad condition in 1999 when he became CEO; no one was ready to invest in the company, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Tony focused on reviving the company culture, making it the No. 1 priority, making customer service the responsibility of the entire company and not just a department, helping employees grow personally and financially, etc.
All this and many other things led Zappos to become a billion-dollar company.
Conclusion
Tony Hsieh, unfortunately, died at the age of 47 in 2020. This was due to a fire that broke out in his house However, his achievements, passion, and lessons in this book will continue to inspire many budding entrepreneurs.
His focus on improving the company's culture was one I loved a lot. It was ranked No. 1 on the "Best Companies to Work For" list in 2009 by Fortune.
Everyone can take inspiration from this book, and I recommend it to all of you.
CONCLUSION
These are five books to read this November. All books explore different fields, so you won't get bored reading them.
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Also read - 30 Best Books To Read Before You Die.
Thank you & Happy reading.